by Zak Rockman

A big welcome to Zak Rockman, who makes his debut today as the latest member of the Plastic Craic writing team. We introduced Zak in our monthly round-up but the short story is that Zak is a top competitive player, having won loads of events (including the Misfits GT last weekend) and recently getting the call-up to Team Australia AOS.

I’ll hand you over to Zak now – welcome aboard mate.

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Do you like running and charging 20 inches across the board?

Do you like managing wholly within bubbles the way a Port Adelaide fan likes meth?

Do you like the idea of hitting your opponent hard, then getting the hell out of Dodge?

Then Sylvaneth might be the choice for you!

With Sylvaneth sitting at a 40-odd percent win rate (depending on who you ask) and the balance patch dropping hot with some changes the question remains, are the tree fuckers any good?

Yes. Yes they are.

In fact in my opinion they were already sitting in a decent spot, and with these buffs they’ll be having a great time.  These changes have amped them up to 11.

Sylvaneth has one of the nicest model ranges but up until now, people online have mostly been super down on the tree touchers.  After this article I hope you can start cooking up some lists, so if you are erring on the side of dendrophilia¹ I hope you enjoy my insights into Sylvaneth and are able to dust them off and get them back on the table. Let’s bump up that win rate together.

A quick note on terminology before we start: In this article I’ll be using the term “Avg dmg” repeatedly. This is the calculated output against a 4+ armour save. And when I say “+2 D3”, It refers to the new rule where you do 0, 2 or 3 damage on a D3 roll. AoA= All out attack, AoD= All out Defence, BT’s= Battle Tactics, CP= Command Point, KH= Kurnoth Hunters, and whenever I say Wood, I’m talking about an Awakened Wyldwood, it doesn’t mean I have a stiffy.  Unless I’m also looking at Belthanos’s warscroll, then I make no promises. This whole glossary thing is totally stolen from Theo …. As they say, sucks to suck.

Overview: Playstyle and Win Condition

Move quickly and get out of the way, 

Sylvaneth is a very elite army with some average armour saves and very little wards across the board and some average melee profiles – nothing is out of this world. Sylvaneth win games by being extremely mobile hitting key pieces and staying out of range.

• Its an army that needs to control a games tempo and require you playing them to have a really solid understanding of the core rules and your army.
• Sylvaneth have a ridiculous amount of healing
• Their trees are now able to be placed on the board!!!
• There are a few different builds – but most rely on Belthanos
• Doesn’t really work with one unit being spammed and wants a bit of a mix
• Lots of being WW bubbles and a few key dice rolls will mess up your plans (just roll well).
• Is a very Swiss army knife faction with a solid presence in all aspects of the game (Magic, shooting and combat).

Sylvaneth often lack bodies and board presence compared to large horde armies. Sometimes they can struggle to score max points early. But with some underdog bonus and a turn or two of hitting some key pieces and are able to get that leg back up.  Knowing when to strike and fade or power through and when to hold objectives is the key to winning your games and takes time and practise to master.

Army Mechanics

Battle Traits

In AoS 3^rd Edition, Strike and Fade was one of the army’s signature abilities, with Spiteswarm Hive and maybe a Battlemage furnishing a unit with +5 to charge. You would teleport some KH, do the bonk and piss off before anyone touched your precious little hammer. Rinse and repeat every turn, and have a few Dryads or other idiots here or there to hold objectives and score points. It was pretty awesome to kill stuff and not lose or even put anything at risk (so long as you can roll 2+s). Belthanos then got released, giving Sylvaneth access to run, charge and then fuck off.

Moving over to 4^th Edition, Games Workshop have switched it up by forcing Sylvaneth units to stay in combat, and then Strike and Fade at the end of combat. It’s a downgrade strength as it gives your opponents some counterplay and means they will be able to touch your toys. It definitely is a factor in using this ability effectively, as a savvy opponent can reduces Strike and Fade’s ability to do damage without any repercussions, including a clever Countercharge.

You get access to Strike and Fade within range of a Wood, and with the battlescroll update, the bigger the Wood the bigger the range – 6 inches for a one-piece wood, 9 inches for a two-piece wood and 12 inches for a three-piece wood (yes there is probably a better way to phrase this, but I’m running with it). This is a very positive change and actually makes this ability useful.

Endless Growth, pretty similar to last edition, gives a d3 heal rather than just 1. It’s nice – especially for keeping some of the strong Monster units in the build nice and healthy.

Battle Formations

Most of these are very average and none are super stand out. At least it’s nice for an army to have an even spread of options, unlike Nighthaunt’s Death Stalkers or Tzeentch’s Wyrdflame Host being their respective armies’ strongest choice by a lot. 

Lords of the Clan: Heal 3 instead of D3 – decent if you want to run a bunch of high-Health units. B tier

Forest Folk: +1 rend for one unit on the charge, that aren’t Kurnoth and are infantry……… sooooooo Spite Revenants, Tree Revenants or Gossamid Archers? If that’s your schtick go for it. In my opinion there are better options though. B tier.

Outcasts: -3 to Control Score of enemy units you are in combat with. Feels solid – helps in games where the opponents have a million models and a 45 minute movement phase, as the Tree People are an elite army. B tier.

Free Spirits: Sylvaneth Cavalry get run and charge.  It’s really good but you can also just run Belthanos who lets you run and charge 3 of anything, so like eh? B tier.

I feel like you could pick any and make an argument for it, so that’s why they are all B tier.

Heroic Traits

One of the best things I have found when taking a look at the Sylvaneth Traits and Battle Formations is that they all seem super balanced. The internal balance for the prickly forest fuckers is actually really good and I am enjoying the extra flavour it brings.

Radiant Spirit: Basically back from 3^rd Edition: 3+ spell ignore, matchup dependant but can be super strong to prevent those annoying debuffs.  I just had a game where I played Tzeentch into Arkhan the Black and let me tell you, there is nothing worse than getting Kairos’s key spell off and your opponent looks you dead in the eyes and crushes your dreams with a simple 4+. So matchup dependent, I think this is strong and definitely has its uses. S+ in the right matchups, D tier in the wrong ones. If you want to gamble at events and put everything on red, power to you.

Warsinger: +2 to move to one unit. It’s decent for some slower-moving Kurnoth or to shove the -1 hit and wound Dryads down someone’s throat. B tier

Spellsinger: Become a Wizard or get an extra +1 to cast. Nice if you want to abuse more Endless Spells or give your Warsong an additional bonus to cast. With there only being limited bonus to unbind out there, having the extra +1 can be super helpful. A tier

Artefacts of Power

None of these are game changers, more bits of flavor to buff your army. A lot require your non-unique Heroes to be in combat which we only really want with a Spirit of Durthu or maybe an Arch Revenant. But a lot of builds I think will use the Seed of Rebirth just to keep the little foot wizard alive. Mostly these aren’t too impactful so moving on.

Spell Lore

Treesong: Make some Wood.  It’s a pretty important spell, and at release it really struggled to be useful outside of maybe turn one due to the heavy restrictions on where it could be placed. Now the Battlescroll has improved our quality of life and hopefully reduced the 20 minute decision of “Where does tree go down” to a 10 minute decision. Extending the range to 24 inches and reducing the distance down from 3 inches to 1 inch from other models and terrain is a nice touch to actually be able to fit the fuckers.

One hilarious use case²: If there is a little buff piece or foot wizard with a few wounds left, hypothetically we could cast Treesong straight into combat range with the wizard, and maybe do the last few wounds to finish them off via Vengeful Forest Spirits.

Now I do like the idea of bitch slapping a wizard off the board, but let’s talk about the more effective uses: This Terrain is Obscuring for opponents, so annoying Longstrikes or stupid Lumineth shooting got you down?  Take cover in the long grass. Woods now also have a 5+ ward and increase the ranges of some friendly abilities (which we will touch on later). A full set of wood with a 4+ save and a 5+ ward, and a mighty 12 health, places it on the tougher side of terrain.

Wrathful Spirits: +1 to rend while WW 6” of a tree.  However, due to the updated woods this can be as large as 12″ from the wood. Extra rend is great to deal with the high-save golden poster boys (Stormcast Eternals) or some of Archaon’s finest warriors.

Dwellers Below: 5+ horde clearer, is nice … enough said.

Warscroll Focus

Let’s take a look at some of the standout units in the book.

Allarielle

The Goddess of Life, giving off a huge amount of Yass Queen energy and in my opinion one of the coolest models in the game.

With 16 wounds on a 3+ save and a 6+ ward, she is tanky-ish? But a dedicated opponent will be able to take her out. A whatever shooting attack and movement of 14 (20 when paired with belthanos) she has a huge amount of presence on the board.

Lifebloom: Giving this 3 cast wizard +1 to cast is very nice.  Sitting near a Place of Power she is at +2. This is juicy, being a reliable way to throw out some trees and the powerful spells that I have mentioned earlier. Additionally, a 2d3 MW spell is helpful to free up units that are stuck in combat with something that has a few health left. The heal 2d3 in any hero phase means that she can heal 6d3 per battle round, which is an insane amount of healing and paired with the Lords of the Clan makes it a potential heal of 4d3+6 over a battle round.

Rite of life: 4+ brings back a half-size unit, that’s all the restrictions so these units can be literally anything. The flexibility with this is huge and since they are new replacement units they get their Once Per Game abilities to use again. The 4+ roll is a bit dicey and the roll will be super annoying in games where you never roll one, or great when you roll it every time. However, assuming that nothing should be dead turn 1, you should be able to get 4 rolls out of it and on average returning 2 units in the game.

Alarielle has d6 impact hits and has an average damage output of about 14 damage, which is pretty solid.

She is a bit of a reduce reuse and recycle model – getting you environmentalists quite turned on. Her insane access to healing means that she can sit around in combat and with the strike and fade and can heal back to full before your opponent gets to their movement phase.

Belthanos

Another gorgeous model in the range³. Belthanos added a lot to third edition with the ability to run and charge and turned Sylvaneth into one of the fastest armies. Being able to move upwards of 20 inches and having Strike and Fade and teleports meant they basically got to do whatever the hell they wanted. Brings a respectable Avg dmg of 12.5 with an AoA.  

In fourth edition he has retained his signature ability to hand out run and charge using his Kurnothi War-Horn. Rather than being a bubble – it is now pick 3 units and they can run and charge, which is BOARDWIDE. This unit in my opinion is basically an auto include and opens up a lot of utility for the forest fuckers.

We’re not done yet. Belthanos’s Nature Aetheric allows him to make a terrain piece count as a wood for the purposes of Endless Growth, Walk the Hidden Paths and Strike and Fade. This once per battle ability can be used in either hero phase and provides great utility to expand the Strike and Fade ranges especially.

Rythm of the Chase: 2+d3 and if you manage to roll the 2+ (which is actually disguised as a 3+ on a D6) you can then fuck off to the other side of the unit within 1inch of the target. This ability is BONKERS (when you roll the 2+). Gives Belthanos great flexibility to get into those tough-to-reach areas (kinda like my girlfriend waxing my bum) and hit those pesky Longstrikes or key buff pieces.  Additionally, there is no restriction on when Belthanos can use this ability, so you don’t even need to have charged.

Going to be honest, I am rock solid after that – I did say no promises after all.

In summary these are two of the strongest Heroes in the Sylvaneth index, bringing great utility and numerous benefits to the army, all wrapped up in 3+ saves to keep them nice and safe (except from Longstrikes / Yndrasta, but what can you do?).

Gossamid Archers

Gossamid Archers are very solid sitting at 120 points. Having an avg dmg of 7 in a reinforced unit at 12 inches away is respectable.

Additionally, unlike Longstrikes, Kurnoth Hunters with Bows and Skyfires, having a unit of 10 in the Honour Guard with Priority Target still bumps up their damage and they are less impacted with the new 12” limitation on those Priority Target rules. Yes, these units aren’t huge hammers, but they’re a useful scalpel that can be difficult for opponents to deal with. A stiff breeze will mess them up but there are plenty of shenanigans to screw with your opponents:

Forest Fighters provides a 2 inch coherency range, allowing you to really stretch this unit out, which is perfect for blocking charge lanes and preventing your opponents from gaining board control.

Zephyrspites gives the Gossamids a d6 move after they shoot. This ability is incredibly strong and gives the unit greater flexibility in movement, opening up the ability to shoot a unit and then either move d6 inches away from hammers, or to grab objectives or BTs.

Note that this is in any shooting phase, giving your Gossamids the ability to do it when using Covering Fire. Hypothetically pairing this with a Redeploy gives the Gossamids a 2d6 move to get out of danger or to cover your flank when required.

Spiterider Lancers

It does feel like the Cavalry Edition so far: there are limited units of cavalry in the game but they are taking a firm foothold in the meta, with plenty of top tier armies having 1-2 reinforced units as their hammers.

Forest fighters: Gives the bugs 2” coherency, allowing them to get into tough to reach areas and allowing for 1 or 2 models to jump a screen and hit key pieces.

Thrumming with Life: Heal 3 at the end of both turns and with a reinforced unit of 6 being 30 wounds, the heals at the end of both players’ turns can make them super annoying to deal with and grind it out.

Descent of the Spiteriders: 3+ strike first when they charge – helps keep you winning the activation game when you send a bunch of units in. With a reinforced unit packing an avg dmg of 16.4 (and bumped up to 21.3 with an AoA), these guys are decently effective at bullying your opponent. What really stands out is that these guys get to move 12” base and paired with Belthanos or the subfaction to give them run and charge, they can oonga boonga their way across the board to deliver some brutal blows. Also an amazing candidate for Counter Charge: that +1 damage and 3+ Strike First going off in your opponent’s turn can be devastating.

Originally, I had the Spite Riders as one of the very strongest units in the book, however, with the current meta and the majority of the bugs’ damage locked to Companion attacks – it can get a bit rough out there, being significantly hindered by debuffs and with no synergy. A lot of people are running the Bodyguard season rule which is bad enough, but paired with Karazai or Twinsouls those -2 attacks really will hinder the bugs’ output. Making them 1 attack each and dropping the 37 attacks down to 13 really hurts. You can work around it by having the bugs kill the other stuff in the army, while Belthanos and Allarielle bully the fat dragon. It’s just something to consider when building your list.

Now let’s take a look at a shorter summary for some of the army’s decent units, that in my opinion are weaker than the previous four but still useful.

Lady of Vines

A decent pick in my opinion.  Access to a mobile tree for the purposes of Strike and Fade is nice to give your army some more flexibility. Able to give out a 5+ ward bubble and on a 2+, able to dish out -1 or +1 to hit on an enemy unit. A “Whatever” shooting profile, but 6 melee attacks at rend 2 damage 2 with crit mortal has its place. Only concern is that she has the Monster keyword, preventing her benefiting from Guarded Hero and therefore she’s an easy target for enemy ranged units.

Warsong Revenant

The good old flute nuke from 3^rd edition that would hide in the corner, summon a tree and detonate on an army is still a very viable option for 4^th edition.

Being able to give out a 6+ ward or reduce enemy wards by 1 while within 12” provides a useful increase to Sylvaneth’s lethality.

Having a built in +1 unbind and banishment is very solid and an ability not seen in many armies any more – especially paired with Spell Singer to increase their casting ability. A decent chip spell is not what it used to be, however being able to reach key squishy units or access to hero phase mortal damage is always helpful.

The Warsong is definitely a solid pick, perhaps outshone by the other Heroes above but can still do work in a list and is a very solid option.

Spirit of Durthu

A combat powerhouse, with the ability to maybe reduce a Monster’s attacks to keep him around a bit longer.  This however is very matchup dependent and we aren’t seeing a whole lot of Monsters on the table at this stage of the meta. Also the ability to get +1 to hit while near a tree is a nice bonus.

Not the best unit and definitely outshone by Belthanos – but you could see him make an appearance in a Monster Mash-style Sylvaneth build.

Branchwych

A one cast wizard with good flexibility.

Her Fury of the Forest ability is great, especially when you would like to fuck with an opponent’s head. 3+ strike first in your opponent’s turn is juicy, and cheekily can be paired with Counter Charge, giving your hammer the chance to get in before they do.

The Twistweald

Some decent chip damage in their ranged and melee profile – nothing out of this world, but decent. A reasonably cheap unit that has 16 health.

Their ability to reduce an opponent’s charge by d3 is very nice when paired with Redeploy or the Gossamids’ Zephyrspites ability. Very solid, but a bit situational and annoyingly their ability requires them to be 6” away from your other units. This means they will often be positioned on the flanks and fast enough enemy units should be able to flank around. This unit requires a lot of practice to be used optimally, however are excellent when you do.  

Revenant Seekers

Similar to Spiterider Lancers in their abilities, this unit is aimed a bit more at healing than combat. With an extra 3 Rally rolls (and +1 for the Banner) these bugs are able to get 10 dice when they Rally and on average dice, they are able to bring back 1 full bug. Situationally useful and definitely have their place, and Crit Mortal on a handful of attacks makes them a viable skirmishing unit to annoy a flank and score tactics/objectives.

Kurnoth Hunters with Swords/Scythes and Bows

All of the Kurnoth are able to give out a 6+ ward to friends while they hold hands around the same objective together, a “Whatever” kind of ability (and I have definitely forgotten about it when playing). The Combat Kurnoth are able to fling out some mortals, with the Swords doing it on the charge and Scythes doing it on charging-in units. The Bows are able to ignore Guarded Hero so they can knock off the odd support hero here and there. I can see an argument for each unit.

A pack of 6 Bows picking off Heroes are difficult-ish for an enemy to shift, so they can be a solid inclusion. Losing the 18 inch Priority Target has definitely decreased their presence and for a cheaper cost, Gossamids are right there.

Avg Dmg of each unit are: Bows at 4.1, Swords at 10.1 and Scythes at 8.9 without reinforcing the unit. A reinforced unit is able to put in work here and there; the Swords do marginally more damage than the bugs, however the bugs beat them in mobility, staying power (with their extra Heal 3 each turn) and the fact that they are not infantry. A lot of units this edition have anti-Infantry with only a few having anti-Cavalry.

Six Swords are able to do some decent work with their Crit Mortal, but as mentioned above can be outshone by the bugs and with only 5” movement, it feels required to autorun them with Belthanos to get to 11 inches, while the bugs are already sitting pretty at a 12″ move base.

I do really like the idea of 6 Scythes in the middle of the board with a Branchwych behind them to give out the 3+ Strike First, and maybe adding the spell to increase their rend to 3 from the anti-charge.

Dryads

Pretty similar to last edition: -1 hit and wound while within 6 of a wood, and the Battlescroll does bump this up to 12” while the wood contains 3 pieces. It has debuffs and it’s a screen, what more can one say?

Tree Revenants

Still teleport around the board – annoyingly its Once Per Turn (Army), so you can only do it with one unit. A solid battle tactic and objective scorer, however it’s important to acknowledge that the some position-based battle tactics (notably Take the Flanks) do not allow you to be set up that turn, so these guys would need to teleport there the turn before.  That’s a bit of a mess as Take the Flanks is usually everyone’s preferred first turn pick.

Spite Revenants

Crit mortal on a bunch of attacks is spicy for a cheap unit that can be spammed across the board to put in work. Their 3+ turn off Commands is enticing, however what sucks is that it is Infantry locked (another example where Cavalry is shining over Infantry at the moment).

Manifestations

Are they as good as Morbid Conjuration? ….. No.

But what about after all the nerfs to Morbid?  Still no.

Awakened Wyldwoods

Essential for a lot Sylvaneth buffs, teleport abilities and in some cases screens.

The changes from the Battlescroll have improved their placement only requiring them to be 1” away from models and other terrain. These fat fucks give Sylvaneth the ability to lock down laneways from large footprint Monsters (such as Archaon, Karazai or a Mawcrusha). Utilising our Terrain as well as the occasional cheap units and Manifestations, Sylvaneth have plenty of resources to manipulate the battlefield and pick fights on their own terms.

Additionally, the Battlescroll has made our trees a lot tankier with a 5+ ward.  A 12 wound terrain piece with a 4+ save and 5++ ward requires a decent commitment from your opponent to take down.

A major issue with terrain in 4.0 is the ability of teleporting armies to be able to jump next to terrain and then charge that terrain, making their 9 inch long bomb charges much more consistent as they can charge the terrain, pile in and hit a nearby unit.  In practice they might only really need a 4” charge to hit a unit they deployed 9” away from as they charge 4” forward, pile in 3” and swing at 3″ range. It’s annoying for sure, but with a bit of playing around and plenty of reps, it’s just something you have to get a feel for and adjust based on match up.

I can’t lay out a Wyldwood placement map for you that will optimise every possible table layout, but I can tell you that by getting a feel for this army you will be able to use Woods more to your advantage as you learn to manipulate and then dominate the field of battle.  The best use of Manifestations on the turn they come down (so long as they do have a move characteristic) can be to throw them on your flanks or back line to prevent these charges, since they’ll push your opponent’s teleports back 9”.

Regiments of Renown

They’re all kind of mid except for the Saviours of Cinderfall which are off their head. A bunch of wounds with a decent save, a 4+ ward and some solid output. They can be a real pain in the arse and it’s all the rage in the top meta Order armies. I personally hate these cunts and the fact that they weren’t even touched in the previous Battlescroll is fucking ridiculous. If it’s your thing, enjoy them while you can but I really hope they are nerfed because they are only 230 points?!?!!? Wtf Games Workshop.

Playstyle – and Some Competitive Lists!

Sylvaneth are an army that can be taken in a few different directions though of course some builds are stronger than others. There is a bit of Rock Paper Scissors going on in the meta at the moment, so there is no single Best List in the Game™ (unless you play Lumineth). Sylvaneth have always been a castle playing with a yo-yo, and the change to 4^th Edition has just altered how we play with that yo-yo.

The List: Big Momma and the Expendable Boyfriend

This list plays as one of the fastest armies in the game. With few models, they make up for it in the constant 4+ recursion and being able to move their three main hammers (Allarielle, Belthanos and 6 Spiteriders) across the board 18-20 inches and then charging. The high mobility, Strike and Fade capabilities and teleports makes this army super annoying to pin down and hit successfully. Pairing this with Power Through on fast-moving models with large wound characteristics, if you aren’t in Strike and Fade range you are able to zoom 12/14 inches back to keep your units out of threat ranges.

Additionally, with Allarielle’s 4+ recursion you can throw a unit away early if it means slowing your opponent’s progress down for a turn or 2. It seems cruel to throw Belthanos away in battle rounds 1 and 2 but after he has made a terrain feature into a wood and done some damage to key pieces, effectively shutting down an opponent’s progress by keeping them back with the classic pin and win, you will have 3-4 chances to roll a 4+ and bring Belthanos back with 6 wounds allocated. And at the end of that turn he will heal at least d3 if he’s next to a tree anyway, then with a Rally next turn he’s basically back to full if he needs to be.

The Tree Revenants and Revenant Seekers are there to provide the army with some objective grabbers and BT scorers. This has always been the Tree Revenants’ role, being a cheap unit with a teleport – what more could you ask for⁴? Revenant Seekers in this list have the roll of skirmishing with an opponent’s skirmishing unit – crit mortal should help get a few damage through, and the Heal 3 end of each turn makes them supper annoying and not easily whittled down.

In a 3+ We Trust

This list has the same fast-moving hammers as the last (with Belthanos and the bugs), but focuses around a core of 6 Scythes staying in range of the Branchwych’s ability to hand out Strike First on a 3+. It makes it super annoying for a combat army to get stuck in and push those Scythes off the objective. Paired with their 4 mortals on average against a unit charging in, and the Warsong’s -1 to ward rolls, they can punch through some decent damage before the opponent’s hammer gets a chance to swing.

This list is super swingy around the 3+ Strike First and it will be a real feels bad rolling those 1s and 2s in critical moments. You could swap out some chaff for a Treelord Ancient with his 4+ Strike Last Rampage to give you a bit more reliability in this play. However, it’s a bit of a one trick pony and an opponent with some decent ranged output (or their own access to Strike First) has ways to get around it.

I Have So Many Kurnoths and Want Them on the Table

Lots of people tend to own 12-18 Kurnoth Hunters and I do understand the appeal of wanting to get them on the tabletop, rather than leave a couple hundred bucks sitting on the shelf.

Kurnoth Hunters aren’t necessarily bad – as previously discussed I feel they are just outshone by the Spiteriders at the moment. It’s an okay build: the unit of Swords will do a bunch of damage with the Arch-Revenant for +1 to wound and an All out Attack. The Arch-Revenant has kinda dropped off from last edition as he no longer gives +1 to wound to the Kurnoth Bows. The changes to Priority Target have left the Bows feeling pretty “Whatever” at the moment relative to Gossamids and other units. This is very much a counter-punch build that could still do well.

But What if I Don’t Have Belthanos?

Currently Belthanos is sitting really strong in the meta and is an overall good pick. If you have him, and like him, he is an auto include at the moment, so I’d highly recommend getting your hands on one.

But if you do want to run a strong Sylvaneth list without Belthanos, you can swap and change him for other heroes or units, and throw the bugs in the “Run and charge” battle formation for the same functionality. Belthanos just happens to be one of the stronger units in the book, and most books are struggling for a solid internal balance, which does force a certain “This build is the strongest” vibe. But if it’s not your thing I won’t crush your dreams (yet).

It’s not a bad build in any sense. A very strong magical presence helps to get out some of the broken Manifestations, which in turn gives your army a lot more board presence. Gossamids still do their thing of being annoying. You keep an 18”-moving hammer to smash units off the board, and some solid recursion. The Warsong and Spites paired together turning off commands and wards is a nasty combination into lots of armies, with 5+ wards popping up everywhere now. If your mate has been pantsing you with Nighthaunt while they were off their head, turn off their 5+ ward Command and reduce their 6+ ward to nothing, and then throw a bunch of dice (with Crit Mortal) at those ethereal cunts.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, as a Sylvaneth player I’d argue that they’re sitting at S Tier at the moment.

They can compete in most aspects of the game and put in serious work, messing up your opponent’s plans and units. Having high mobility and Strike and Fade (plus Powering Through) gives you access to smash out a lot of damage all while putting yourself at little risk. The army has some really great rules and utility across all aspects of the game.

That said, Sylvaneth being quite elite can make it difficult to score max every turn without putting something at risk. Understanding when to leave Belthanos out in the cold and when to keep him tucked away is key to controlling the tempo of the game.

So Sylvaneth are not an army you can just rock up with and win⁵; but in the right hands – they can feel unstoppable.

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1. Google tells me it means those that are sexually attracted to trees, and this has now ruined my suggested websites. I searched it up so you don’t have to. ↩︎
2. Hilarious if you’re the Sylvaneth player ↩︎
3. Kinda seems like Sylvaneth are the best, yeah that’s right other writers FUCK your Bonesplitterz ↩︎
4. Editor Pete: I dunno, but I’m sure you’ll find something. Order already have the best BTs in the game and yet you still whinged that you couldn’t auto-score Take the Flanks on the cheap. ↩︎
5. Looking at you again, Lumineth ↩︎

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